Former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has stressed that the push for climate projects and investments remains unstoppable even after President Donald Trump withdrew the country from the landmark Paris Agreement.
The Trump administration's decision came as part of a sweeping series of executive orders signed by the newly inaugurated president on his first day in office on Monday. The move means the U.S. will withdraw from the climate accord for the second time, with Trump having previously exited the country from the agreement during his first term in office.
A day later on the sideline of the World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting 2025 in Davos, Switzerland, China Media Group (CMG) talked to Kerry, who signed the Paris Agreement on behalf of the U.S. in 2015 as the secretary of state.
Kerry, who took over the role of U.S. special presidential envoy for climate from 2021 to 2024, said Trump's course on pulling the U.S. out of the international efforts to combat the climate crisis would not change the goals of global investors in moving climate projects forward.
"One person cannot stop what is happening with respect to the funding climate projects around the world. And many, many investors now understand you can do the things you need to do and make money. And I think that's changing the dynamic [of the market]. The world will continue to move on this session and that's where we need to go," said Kerry.
Adopted in December 2015, the Paris Agreement is an international endeavor to tackle human-caused global warming and related crises, which the U.S. formally joined in September 2016.
The first Trump administration officially took the U.S., one of the world's biggest emitters of greenhouse gases, out of the Paris climate accord in November 2020. However, Joe Biden, who succeeded Trump to become the 46th U.S. president in 2021, signed an executive order on his first day in office to bring the U.S. back into the agreement.
Trump's withdrawal from Paris Agreement cannot stop climate projects: former secretary of state
Trump's withdrawal from Paris Agreement cannot stop climate projects: former secretary of state
